Michigan

Detroit Tigers' Torii Hunter, right, celebrates with teammates after the Tigers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 7-6 in a baseball game in Toronto on Tuesday, July 2, 2013. Hunter drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning.
(AP Photo)

TORONTO -- Tigers outfielder Torii Hunter's 37-year-old legs
motored down the first-base line and enabled him to beat out an infield hit
that scored the go-ahead run.

The Tigers' dugout ate up the sight.

"Especially a guy like me who's 27 years old running down the line
and beating it out," Hunter said, smiling as he subtracted a decade off his
actual age. "They really love it."

Hunter's also been around long enough to know that a comeback 7-6
win against the Blue Jays on Tuesday might just be the spark that the team
needs to snap out of its recent funk. The Tigers trailed by four runs after the
first inning, but still won because they didn't stay down.

"Right after they scored four, we came in the dugout and said, 'Hey,
don't give up. Don't give in. Let's keep fighting, keep battling,'" Hunter said.
"We were telling each other that and lifting each other up, and it carried over
to the field.

"We didn't give up. If we can't build from that, what else are you
going to build from?"

Hunter came to the plate in the eighth inning with the score tied
and Omar Infante on third base, and he came through with a timely hit that had
escaped the team of late. It wasn't pretty, with the ball hitting off Blue Jays
reliever Neil Wagner and getting to shortstop Jose Reyes just late enough for
Hunter to beat the throw.

The Tigers will take it how they can get it.

"We've been scuffling, but that's baseball," Hunter said. "I don't
know a team in baseball history that didn't have a streak like this.

"It's really our first time really struggling like that, so it's
something we can try to build off of and bounce back. When we go through
something like that again, we can bounce back a lot quicker."